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Indians
'Indians '(Hindi: भारतीयों, Tamil: இந்தியர்கள்) are a diverse ethnic and national group of Indo-Aryans living in the Indian Subcontinent. They are native to the country of India. Indians are direct descandents of the earliest settlers of the subcontinent. Their main language, Hindi is a also a direct descendant of Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages known today. Origin and Etymology Indians have a complex culture, origin and history. The etymology of Indian ''come from the term ''indios ''meaning "indegenous". Indians are part of the Indo-Aryan race. The people come to be known as Indians today trace their origins back to an ancient civilization on the Indus River located in Pakistan. This ancient civilization called the ''Harappas ''were one of the first to create plumbing systems and planned out cities. Other ancient civilizations existed on the Indus Valley. The Harrapa Civilization was destroyed by the tectonic activity that created the Himalayas Mountains. Monsoons soon followed. The destruction of the Harrapa Civilization wasn't due to wars, battles and conquest but rather Mother Nature herself. Forewarding to the Middle Ages and the Reinassance, India became several Hindu empires. In this period, the Indians also influenced the empires in Southeast Asia. They too, became Hindu empires. What is now Indonesia all the way up into Myanmar and the Philippines is known as Greater India. Due to the Hindu influences that flourished those islands. During the Age of Imperialism, Indians found themselves under British rule. One of the most significant national heroes of India was Mohandas Ghandi. Ghandi led a non-violent independance movement against the British. Ghandi was accompanied by Muhammad Ali Jinnah who led the Muslim movement for independance against British rule. In 1946, tensions between Muslims and Hindus caused the Partition of India. Ghandi tried his best to once more united all of the Indians regardless of religion to no avail. Pakistan seperated from the newly independant India which included West Pakistan and East Pakistan. East Pakistan seperated and later became Bangladesh. Today, Indians and Bengalis are very close and friendly existances. Bengali people often call themselves Indians. By Country Ethnic Indians make up one of the world's biggest populations, and one of America's biggest Asian populations. Indians fall nearly equal to Chinese in terms of populations. India unfortunately, suffers a lot of overpopulation. There are 1,180,166,000 Indians living in India itself! The poor living conditions in India has caused a mass migration of Indians to the United States. There are approximately 2,800,000 Indians living in the United States (not to be confused with "Indian" as in Native American). Many ethnic Bengalis also label themselves as Indians. There are 3,000,000 Americans with Indian ancestry. In Nepal, there are 4,000,000 ethnic Indians. In Malaysia, Indians make up 10-20% of the total population. Most of the Indians in Malaysia are Tamil Indians. Indians in Malaysia often want to be called ethnic Malays. Tamil Indians also make up a large minority population in Singapore. The Tamil language is one of Singapore's four official languages, the others being Malay, Mandarin and English. There are 2,000,000 Indians in Myanmar most of them live near the borders to India. Language Indians speak a wide variety of Indo-Aryan languages. India is home to hundreds of different languages and dialects. Hindi is one of the most spoken languages with Indians. Hindi is India's national unifying language and a world major language. But there are only 490,000,000 speakers of Hindi and all of its variants. Meaning that Hindi is only spoken by about 60% of India's population. Hindi-Urdu is a variant of Hindi and is spoken in Pakistan and not India. Standard Hindi is spoken in India. Tamil and Punjabi are also popular languages in India. Tamil is the language spoken by the ethnic overseas Indians from Malaysia and Singapore, not Hindi. Bengali is spoken by both Bengladeshis themselves and ethnic Bengalis from India. The Hindi language is a direct descendant of the ancient Sanskrit language. Sanskrit was not only spoken in the Indian Subcontinent, but also Greater India which includes all of Indonesia reaching into Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. Religion and Architecture The main religions followed by most Indians are Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. Most of the Indians living in India are Hindus. During the colonial period, Pakistan and Bangladesh were once anotomous Muslim regions in India. The Muslims in India mostly in the country's eastern regions which covers all of Bengladesh and southern Nepal. Indian Muslims also live in south-central India and its northwestern provinces near Pakistan. As of 2001, there are 124,080,016 of Indians who profess the Christian faith. Buddhism is a religion originated from India that spread into the East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Jainism is a religion that promotes non-violence, thus contributing to Ghandi's indpendance movement. Indian architecture is of Persian, Mughal and Hindu influences. India's rich history can be seen through its architecture. The Qutub Minar is a mosque in India that is one of the best example of non-Arabic Islamic architecture. The ''Harmandir Sahib, is a golden temple that has no exaggeration to its color description. This is the holiest temple for all Sikhs. The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is an UNESCO world heritage site. The Taj Mahal was built by the Muslim emperor Shan Jahan to honor his wife Mumtaz Mahal. This is considered one of the World's Seven Wonders, which is a combination of Arabic, Persian, Mughal and Hindu architecture.